1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and is specifically applicable when performing distributed object-oriented programming, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a distributed system can be easily developed because a method can be issued to an object in a remote computer as in the case of issuing a method to an object in a local computer using distributed object-oriented technology such as CORBA (common object request broker architecture), DCOM (distributed component object model), JavaRMI (Java remote method invocation), etc.
However, since the conventional distributed object-oriented technology has no functions of replacing a part of a program code of a server object being operated or adding a part of a program code with new functionality from a remote computer, distributed objects cannot be smoothly managed.
For example, when a program for a new inquiry command is to be executed in a database server object, the server object should be terminated and reset in such a way that a newly added program can be available to the server object, and then it should be activated again.
Therefore, with an increasing number of server objects associated with an updated service, a longer time is taken to stop the service because it normally takes a long time to add or update a program code of a server object in a distributed system.
Additionally, there has been the performance problem in case that the distributed system has a severe influence of a network delay when a plurality of methods are invoked for the same object, or when a large amount of data is passed through a method's parameters or a return value.
Furthermore, the number of method interfaces of a server object should be increased for diversification to utilize the server object for general purposes or to customize a client side program using the server object interfaces.
Therefore, in the conventional distributed system, the complicated server interfaces increase the difficulty of application development and the service response delay.
Furthermore, the conventional distributed system has the problem that an administrator has heavy responsibility in maintaining and managing the security of the interface when a program code is added or updated.